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A lot of people are criticizing the new Pope for having been a member of the Hitler Youth. I think there is very good evidence that his membership in that organization was non-blameworthy. First of all, he was very young when he was a member; younger people are not to be held responsible for their actions in the same way that older people are. Second, the evidence seems to show that he was not an especially enthusiastic member. Third, he was probably, in some sense, "forced to" join; if he had refused to join, he or his family would probably have faced quite severe negative consequences. And finally, my impression is that the routine activities of the Hitler Youth were not, on the whole, all that morally troubling. Hitler Youths were, I think, indoctrinated into the Nazi worldview, which is bad; but I do not think they were ordinarily involved in doing wrong actions. My understanding is that they were more likely to be found exercising or chanting slogans than (say) persecuting Jews or what-have-you. None of this means, however, that having been a Hitler Youth cannot hurt one's ability to soundly arrive at correct moral judgments.

Suppose a child is strapped to a chair and forced to listen to Jeffrey Dahmer argue that serial killing is permissible. The child is not permitted to argue back. In fact, the child is forced to pretend to agree with everything that is being said. After a very long time -- say, 1000 hours -- the child is set free to go about his business. We would not blame the child for what has just happened to him. Indeed, we would feel overwhelming pity for the child. Nevertheless, it's probable that by undergoing such an experience, the child's moral sensibilities will have been damaged. If you wanted to get advice on how to resolve a tricky moral problem, for instance, you would prefer to get advice from someone who has not been subjected to this experience, than to get advice from someone who has been subjected to it, all else equal.

I'm guessing that a typical member of the Hitler Youth spent many hours listening to people argue that domination is a virtue, that the weak should be crushed by the strong, that anyone who was born Jewish is one of the "weak", etc. And, like the child in the above example, a typical member of the Hitler Youth was probably expected to pretend to agree. Probably, most of the people who were subjected to this experience are not to blame for having been subjected to it. Nevertheless, this sort of experience is not the best way to prepare to give advice to people who are dealing with tricky moral problems. But this is precisely what the new Pope will be doing.

I'm not saying that having been a member of the Hitler Youth should automatically disqualify you from dispensing moral advice. I am quite sure that someone could be subjected to the experience of being a Hitler Youth and, in the end, become a morally exemplary person. For all I know, the new Pope has done exactly that.

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